Know Your Arch Enemy

by Beth WinegarnerEver since Cordell Jackson became one of the first women to play an electric
guitar, women musicians have set their sights on nearly every musical genre
-- except death metal. Often seen as pure, unadulterated animus, death metal
has attracted few women rockers. But it was only a matter of time, wasn't
it?

Swedish death-metal band Arch Enemy -- a supergroup that includes former
Carcass songwriter Michael Amott; his brother, Chris Amott, from Armageddon;
bassist Sharlee D'Angelo, who also plays with Mercyful Fate and In Flames
drummer Daniel Erlandsson -- recently decided the only vocalist worthy of
its new material is Angela Gossow.

Singer Johan Liiva (Carnage), who had sung with the group since its 1996
debut "Black Earth," was ousted, and Gossow first entered the studio with
Arch Enemy in the fall of 2000.

"When they finished writing the material for 'Wages of Sin,' they started to
discuss the vocalist situation," Gossow says. "They got the idea their
vocalist didn't fit the new material. In Sweden, everyone is a known
musician. Everyone is in so many bands. They didn't want an ex-In Flames
vocalist, or some vocalist from some other band. Chris came up with the idea
to ask me. They thought it was kind of cool to have a woman. It totally
changes the look of a band."

Gossow's vocals are virtually indistinguishable from those of male
death-metal growlers. Her vocal timbre is only slightly higher, but her
range is impressive, from deep bellows to shrieks that make Varg Vikernes
sound, well, like a girl.

Born in Cologne, Germany, Gossow was the oldest of four children. While her
parents were busy with work, she doted on her siblings. "I was the big mama
right from the beginning," she laughs. Gossow was interested in sports,
especially skateboarding. Although her parents didn't like rock music, the
kids were encouraged to play instruments, and Gossow learned flute and
guitar.

When she was 15, Gossow discovered heavy metal. "I was quite isolated,
living outside town with a bad bus connection. I discovered a heavy metal
radio station from Britain. I didn't know it was heavy metal; I just wrote
some band names on my school bag and a guy asked me if I was into heavy
metal. That was first time I noticed what I was listening to," she says.

Some of those names included Metallica, Testament, Anthrax, Slayer,
Pestilence and Carcass. Gossow liked the music, but she discovered a side
effect: her mother hated it. "I got more rebellious. She tried to take my
LPs and tried to introduce me to some more normal circles. I got more and
more into metal and I tried to connect to other metalheads," Gossow says.
"Every kid starts fighting with their parents then, and they need some kind
of topic. Mine was heavy metal."

She says heavy metal changed her life and helped her define her personality.
While she worked on finishing school, she started playing in garage metal
bands, although she didn't think it would lead to a career on stage.

"I started playing lead guitar, but I was a lousy guitar player," she
laughs. In 1991 she joined a more well-known Cologne band that was looking
for a vocalist. "I immediately put my guitar aside."

Gossow took to the death-metal growl from the beginning. "They played death
metal, so I couldn't do normal vocals. Besides, I always felt that I
couldn't sing. I thought I couldn't hold a tone. I felt much more safe
screaming somehow. Plus, my parents really hated this, so it was kind of
cool somehow."

The friction between Gossow and her mother led her to move out at age 17.
She lived on her own and finished school at 19. Eventually, they patched
things up. "Nowadays we are good friends again. She really likes what I'm
doing. [Back then], she thought this was going to damage my psyche or my
soul. She thought she had to save me from something."

Gossow discovered Arch Enemy when "Black Earth" was released. The album sent
shockwaves through the European metal scene, recorded in nine days and
produced by Frederik Nordstrom, who had produced Dimmu Borgir and At the
Gates. "Stigmata" followed in 1998, and "Burning Bridges" was released in
1999.

At the time, Gossow was writing for a German heavy metal magazine, playing
in a band on the weekends. She was assigned to interview Arch Enemy. "We had
an interesting conversation. I told them I was involved in a metal band, and
they thought it was funny, a woman doing death growls. They asked me to send
a tape," Gossow recalls. She stayed in touch with the band, but was
surprised one day when the phone rang.

"Michael phoned me and was like, 'It's Mike from Arch Enemy.' I was shocked
and super nervous. He says, 'We listened to this tape again and we're
looking for a new vocalist. Do you want to try out?' I thought, "I'm going
to go out and fail totally.' I was chickenshit really." But she figured it
was worth spending a week in Sweden, so she agreed.

"Although the rehearsal didn't go well, and Gossow was nervous the whole time
she was in Sweden, she recorded one song with Arch Enemy. At the end of the
session, the musicians looked around at each other and said, "That was great
song, let's do the next one," Gossow says. She's been part of the group ever
since.

The music for "Wages of Sin" had been completed, but Michael Amott had not
written lyrics for four of the songs. Gossow co-wrote with Amott on "Enemy
Within," "Ravenous," "The First Deadly Sin," and "Lament Of a Mortal Soul."

"'Enemy Within' is about the kind of depression where you sit at home and
you're accusing yourself. I wrote it on a bad day. I am quite good at
putting myself down. It's quite dangerous to get into that kind of spiral,"
Gossow says.

Her lyrics on "The First Deadly Sin" were inspired by Arch Enemy's
longstanding tradition of writing songs about evil women, including "Diva
Satanica." "'Sin' is about Eve tempting Adam. It's got quite senseless
lyrics, but they're fun to sing. they sound good," Gossow says. "'Ravenous'
was inspired by legends of Indian heroes who drank the blood of their
enemies to take on their power.

"Lament" is another introspective piece. "I have a kid in South America that
I donate money every month. People are so selfish, 24 hours a day -- we are
concerned about ourselves all the time. When you look back, you think, "I
haven't done anything for anybody else.' As soon as you have a kid, you know
why you are living. There is a person that needs you. But I'm not really
responsible for anybody. What am I for? What is my reason to live?"

Musically, "Wages of Sin" brings Arch Enemy back to its death metal roots.
"Black Earth" was a traditional death metal album, but later releases were
stuffed with catchy melodies and plenty of twin-guitar solos courtesy of the
Amott brothers. "They didn't play so many solos this time. They didn't
overpack the songs with artistic guitar sport. The songs are faster, the
sound is much more aggressive. and the vocals are more aggressive," Gossow
says.

"Sin" was released in Japan in 2001, well ahead of its April, 2002 worldwide
release. Arch Enemy had fought for a simultaneous release, but legal issues
with the band's record company, Century Media, delayed the album. "It was
lawyers talking to lawyers. We were dead in Europe and America for one
year," Gossow says, frustrated.

Many fans paid steep import prices to buy the Japanese version. "I think
it's cool people are willing to pay the money when they could have
downloaded it for free." The worldwide release of "Sin" includes bonus
material to make up for the delay.

Ten years of guttural growling took their toll on Gossow's throat, however.
"I haven't had any proper lessons, and I was smoking for some time. I didn't
know what a warm-up was. But I think the worst thing I did was, I got a
really bad throat infection, I didn't take any antibiotics, but I was still
rehearsing. In the end I lost my voice," Gossow says. A doctor told her
she'd developed nodules on her vocal chords. "He said, 'Either you stop now,
or you may lose your voice.'"

She returned to Germany and worked with a number of vocal coaches who taught
her everything from how to breathe and talk to how to exercise her throat
each morning. "I learned totally different breathing techniques. I used to
take tons of air into the top of my lungs, which puts pressure on your
throat. And I learned speech from the beginning. Now I talk much more clear
than I ever did, she says. "When I wake up, I don't start talking until I do
some exercises. I do them between interviews. I know, every day how they are
doing." Her nodules are gone.

Those exercises will allow Gossow to continue singing in metal bands as long
as she likes -- which is a good thing, considering how much she loves the
genre. "I think [metal is] very close to the human primitive roots somehow.
You've risen up in society, everyone is all nice and social, there's an
order. You're supposed to talk nice. Then people start committing murder,"
she says, adding that heavy metal is "like scream therapy. People have
somehow to scream or make noise, create some kind of raw floating energy."

Also, "it's the most energetic music. I really like the double bass, when
the floor is shaking, when you can feel it in your stomach. It's very
physical. I like good food, I like sex and I like heavy metal," Gossow
laughs.

She hopes, at some point, that fans will be able to look past the anomaly of
a female death-metal singer. "Some people tell me they like the fact that a
female is connected with brutal, aggressive music. And I'm an attractive
female -- I'm a woman who looks like a woman, but my voice is not so female.
I guess it's opened some new doors," Gossow says. "Acting on stage is going
to be different. I will not behave like a man onstage. I think [fans] expect
something different somehow, and they're going to get something different."